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Higgs,

Who’s smarter—cats or dogs? Addressing this question is the first task I’ve been assigned as Science Cat. (Don’t think just because I’m a cat I won’t be able to answer this objectively. I can assure you that I employ only rigorous scientific thinking and consult only top-rated scientists.) The Wall Street Journal recently ran a piece arguing that dogs were smarter than cats. My own independent research has revealed something quite different.

My assistant and I started our investigation with noted veterinary behaviorist Debra Horwitz. “The key to understanding differences between cats and dogs comes down to understanding their ecology,” she said. Dogs evolved from wolves—pack hunters who are good at communication and picking up social signals. When humans started breeding dogs, they expanded on that social intelligence, she explained, favoring dogs who were attentive to humans.

Many dogs will fetch objects when you point to them, and a few dogs can memorize hundreds of spoken words, Horwitz said. “Dogs have a more evolved social communication repertoire than cats, and that leads them to do things humans equate with being smarter.”

Note the nuance here, please. She’s not saying dogs are smarter—only that they do things that humans consider smart. You could argue that cats are smarter, because we don’t always have to do what humans want. Upon further questioning, Dr. Horwitz said cats like me evolved as solitary hunters. We’re good at stalking small animals such as mice, and our mouse and rat-catching skills were the primary reason humans started living with us.

We next put the dogs vs. cats question to Marc Bekoff, a professor of evolutionary biology and author of Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals and many other books. “As a biologist, I don’t consider that to be a meaningful question,” he said. “Animals do what they do to be card-carrying members of their species.”

Dr. Bekoff has a point. The words “smart” and “intelligent” can be defined in umpteen different ways. Recently, for example, scientists at Kyoto University in Japan pitted a chimp named Ayumu against humans in the task of remembering strings of random numbers flashed on a screen. The chimp won. People commenting on the news initially assumed the students were unusually stupid. But in a recent piece for the Wall Street Journal, noted primatologist Frans de Waal admitted the chimp beat him easily. Ayumu also reportedly beat a human memory champion. Does that mean chimps are smarter than humans?

In the end, I’m left to conclude that comparing dogs with cats is like asking who’s smarter, musicians or mathematicians. Each does things the other can’t. It’s a poorly conceived question, so it’s incorrect to say dogs are smarter than cats.

On average, we cats aren’t very obedient, but we’re quick, stealthy, and capable of subtlety. When my assistant sleeps late and I need my breakfast, I gently brush my paw against her cheek. It’s a lot classier than slobbering on people, if you ask me. I’m glad I was born a cat.

Thank you for letting me express my thoughts. May I have a treat now? — Higgs

Higgs is a cat and an armchair scientist, who is fascinated by astronomy, physics, evolution, and human behavior. He also enjoys scratching the arms of the couch. You can keep up with him on Twitter here. His caretaker and agent, Faye Flam, has written about science for The Economist, The Washington Post, Science, and more; read more of her writing here.

Your use of this website constitutes and manifests your acceptance
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Pursuant to U.S. Copyright law, as well as other applicable federal
and state laws, the content on this website may not be reproduced,
distributed, displayed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used,
without the prior, express, and written permission of Athlon Media Group.
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